concept creep

{{Short description|Expansion of a concept to the point of meaninglessness}}

Concept creep is the process by which harm-related topics experience semantic expansion to include topics which would not have originally been envisaged to be included under that label.{{Cite journal |last1=Haslam |first1=Nick |last2=Tse |first2=Jesse S. Y. |last3=De Deyne |first3=Simon |date=2021 |title=Concept Creep and Psychiatrization |journal=Frontiers in Sociology |volume=6 |page=806147 |doi=10.3389/fsoc.2021.806147 |pmid=34977230 |pmc=8716590 |issn=2297-7775|doi-access=free }} It was first described in a Psychological Inquiry article by Nick Haslam in 2016, who identified its effects on the concepts of abuse, bullying, trauma, mental disorder, addiction, and prejudice.{{Cite journal |last=Haslam |first=Nick |date=2016-01-02 |title=Concept Creep: Psychology's Expanding Concepts of Harm and Pathology |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2016.1082418 |journal=Psychological Inquiry |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=1–17 |doi=10.1080/1047840X.2016.1082418 |s2cid=147479811 |issn=1047-840X}} Others have identified its effects on terms like "gaslight"{{Cite web |date=2018-11-30 |title=Concept Creep, Or "You Keep Using That Word. I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means." |url=https://poly.land/2018/11/30/concept-creep-gaslighting/ |access-date=2022-03-14 |website=Poly Land |language=en-US}} and "emotional labour".{{Cite web |last=Beck |first=Julie |date=2018-11-26 |title=The Concept Creep of 'Emotional Labor' |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/11/arlie-hochschild-housework-isnt-emotional-labor/576637/ |access-date=2022-03-14 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}} The phenomenon can be related to the concept of hyperbole.{{cite journal |last1=Haslam |first1=Nick |last2=Vylomova |first2=Ekaterina |last3=Zyphur |first3=Michael |last4=Kashima |first4=Yoshihisa |title=The cultural dynamics of concept creep. |journal=American Psychologist |date=September 2021 |volume=76 |issue=6 |pages=1013–1026 |doi=10.1037/amp0000847 |pmid=34914436 |s2cid=245262396 |url=https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2022-13889-013.html |access-date=2 April 2022}}

It has been criticised for making people more sensitive to harms{{Cite web |last=Friedersdorf |first=Conor |date=2016-04-19 |title=Why Americans Are So Sensitive to Harm |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/04/concept-creep/477939/ |access-date=2022-03-14 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}} and for blurring people's thinking and understanding of such terms, by categorising too many things together which should not be, and by losing the clarity and specificity of a term.

Although the initial research on concept creep has focused on concepts central to the political left's ideology, psychologists have also found evidence that people identifying with the political right have more expansive interpretations of concepts central to their own ideology (ex. sexual deviance, personal responsibility and terrorism).Harper, Purser and Bagueley, Do Concepts Creep to the Left and to the Right? Evidence for Ideologically Salient Concept Breadth Judgments Across the Political Spectrum, Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2022, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/19485506221104643